The massively multiplayer roleplaying game, Elder Scrolls Online which is a part of the famous, Elder Scrolls franchise that started in the year 1994 with Elder Scrolls: Arena, was subjected to a malicious phishing attack.
Threat actors have forced the Elder Scroll enthusiasts in giving up their login credentials or account details. Hackers are impersonating the developers of the game, under the moniker “ElderScrollDevs” and are targeting those users who are playing the game via their PlayStation consoles.
These hackers are sending out random private messages to users, warning them about a security issue.
The victims are apprised on failing to share the details, within the stipulated time frame, they will be blocked from the game and they would lose all the progress they have made so far.
Developed by the Zenimax online studios, The Elder Scrolls Online is a fantasy role-playing game set on the fictional continent of Tamriel which is sprawling with characters such as elves, dwarves, crocs and so on. The game indirectly has its ties to the storyline of the earlier versions of the Elder Scrolls games. According to the steam platform, the game’s online version has nearly 13million active users which create a large pool of data sources to choose from, for cybercriminals.
The entire phishing gambit is ultimately aimed at plundering the in-game goods which can be either earned or purchased by the users, to be sold on the dark web.
The online gaming industry is a booming sector for malicious individuals since the industry, historically is lax with any kind of security. Credential abuse in the online gaming industry is the latest approach to facilitate Real Money Trading (RMT). Once these, threat actors gain access to the victim’s account, strip the victim of their in-game assets and transfer them to a disposable character. For there on, they can sell these assets on the dark web.
With the rise of e-sports, gamers are making considerable investments in the online gaming industry, making it ripe for malicious financial gains. As long as RMT (Real Money Trading) in Massively Multiplayer Online gaming industry is lucrative, hacking techniques like phishing will keep making their way to the gaming world for financial gains.
To ensure safety from such attacks, our experts have advised online gamers to always stay vigilant and be aware of the fact that legitimate game developers would never ask for their patrons to share their log-in credential details. To ensure further security, enabling two-factor authentication is highly advised.
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